Archive for the ‘Tailgating’ Category

This is a quick and easy recipe that has been circulating on the internet. You can definitely adapt this to the parking lot party.

4-6 raw chicken breasts

new potatoes

green beans (fresh or canned-really any green veggie would work)

Arrange in 9×13 dish that you can place in your gas grill. Sprinkle with a packet of Italian dressing mix and then top with a melted stick of butter. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees in your bbq grill with the lid closed, for 1 hour. Take the foil off the last 10 min.

You can get the pan started at home. Sprinkle your chicken with the seasoning and melted butter and bag it up. Place your veggie in the pan and cover. When you’re ready to cook, get the chicken out of the cooler. Place it in the pan with the veggies, heat the gas grill to 350 and put the ready pan on the grill to cook. Have a cold one. Toss some corn hole or pigskin. In an hour, you’re ready to eat!!!

Tailgating season is about to go into full swing. Baseball season is winding down. Racing season is over the hump. Concert season is in full tilt. And the gridiron is about to heat up.

For those of us that are seasoned warriors of the blacktop party, we know the drill. For the newbies, crack your knuckles, grease those joints. It’s time to get cracking.

It is always nice to have a crew. Having more people to do stuff, help out and bring food and party goods is great. But that also means being more elaborate, having more food, more beverages, more stuff. More stuff means bigger and better means of cooking for the masses. That means not just the little grill that could. That little guy is for you and your partner or your best bud. You start getting into numbers and you need bigger and better. Not just grills either. Now is when you can get more creative. Get a stock pot and outdoor propane cooker. Make a big pot of chili. Steam lobsters and clams. You can even deep fry a turkey for those, on or close to, Thanksgiving Day games.

If you really have a big crew, you may even want to upgrade from a conventional turkey fryer to a safer fryer, like an FF2 Super by R & V Works. This is a 6 gal. deep fryer that you can deep fry just about anything in, including a 15 to 17 pound turkey. It’s safer for frying & it’s mobile. It has a rolling caddy so you can easily move it to where ever on the black top you want it. After cooking you can just leave the fryer cool while your in watching the game, with out the danger of someone bumping into it and knocking it over. After the game, just open the drain valve, attach a drain hose for convenience, and drain your frying oil right back into the original containers. The cooking compartment separates from the caddy for ease of transportation if you are short on height space. Easier use and clean up, means more time to hang with your friends and enjoy the game.

Having a larger fryer like this can add so much more depth to your tailgate menu. Now you can free up the stock pot and patio stove for corn on the cob and potatoes, or Philly Cheese steak, while deep frying French fries, or Buffalo wings in your Cajun Fryer. It doesn’t just have to be frozen burger patties or hot dogs on a rinky dink table top grill anymore. Let’s fire up this parking lot party and jam tailgating season into full gear!!

The Cajun Express Smoker by R & V Works is a bbq smoker that has a special enhanced sealed system that allows you to smoke foods at an astronomical rate. Imagine coming home from working an 8 hour day and throwing a rack of ribs into the Cajun Express Smoker. The ribs are done in about an hour. (Pre-heating takes about 10-15 mins.) That is enough time to decompress and relax after work and be ready to sit and enjoy a beautifully smoked meal with your family.

Perfect for limited time periods, like catering, vending and tailgating. Obviously, when catering you want to have all of your food done on time. You don’t want to start smoking food the night before and reheat it. When vending at a Farmer’s Market or festival, time is limited also. This smoker smokes your food in about half the time it would take a traditional smoker to smoke. Who wants to leave a smoker going in the parking lot during the game, because the food wasn’t done yet or the wood is still burning. The Cajun Express is perfect for setting up in the stadium parking lot. Gives you the freedom to use your grill other things while the smoker does it’s thing. The best of both worlds for the tailgating palette. The Cajun Express Smoker runs on propane. So no worries about still burning wood. Just shut off your LP tanks while you eat. The unit is cooled off and ready to pack up before you enter the field for the game!

Most smokers cook meat with very low temperatures and a lot of wood. It makes great food but can take very long periods of time. The Cajun Express Smoker is the fastest smoker in the bayou! Cook baby back ribs in only 35 to 40 minutes, or an entire brisket in two hours. Smoke a 15 lb. turkey in 1 hour. This amazing smoker works off of a patented smoking process that utilizes a pressure/vacuum regulator. This revolutionizes cooking times. There is a rubber seal on the latched door that provides an air tight cooking chamber. The only place for air to escape is through a 1″ pipe at the rear of the smoker. This 1″ pipe actually leads to a tank that you can fill with various liquids, and this creates a liquid pressure regulator. When you light the burner, it heats the air, and heated air expands. This causes pressure. The pressure then builds, eventually overcoming the resistance from the liquid in the tank, causing the liquid to “perk”. The result here is that the meat is compressed by pressure, then the perk causes a momentary vacuum, which uncompresses the meat, essentially, pulling the meat apart. The unit will perk about 20 times per minute. In the end, the meat you are cooking is being processed with pressure. Higher temps. are involved which results in shorter cooking periods. You still get great results of smokey, flavorful, yet moist and tender meat.

The liquid that you use in the tank will add flavor to your meats. If you add apple juice or bourbon, your meats will take on a hint of that flavoring along with the smoke from your wood chips.

We recommend using wood chip instead of chunks. The chunks can produce too strong of flavor. From past experience may I also suggest not using pellets or small wood chip/dust. These items actually ignite and can cause internal fire that may damage your heat seal. For standard cooking of say about 2 hours, you want to fill your wood chip tray about 1/2 full. You can also soak your chips if you like, say in bourbon, apple juice, or even wine.Therefore adding more flavor than just your smoke and liquid from your tank.

The Cajun Express Smoker now comes in 3 convenient sizes. The original that easily fits 4 racks of ribs, 2 trimmed 9 lb. briskets, 3-3lb chickens or 1-15 lb. turkey. There is also a 6 rib smoker and a 9 rib smoker. There is a perfect size for the backyard BBQ aficionado, one for a decent sized tailgate party, and even one for large catering jobs or food vending. Comes with castors for ease of mobility.

If you like smoked foods but don’t have the time for the low and slow process, consider a Cajun Express Smoker!

Chowder is a thick rich soup. Sometimes thickened by milk or cream or by crushed up crackers like “Oysterettes’. The name chowder is possibly derived from the French word “chaudiere” meaning stew pot or the type of pot that this concoction was cooked in. Nowadays you can cook chowder right on your stove top in a large soup pan. Better yet, how about right on the beach with your freshly caught clams or cold weather tailgating in the stadium parking lot using a traditional turkey fryer kit or stock pot and outdoor propane cooker?

Chowder, or chowda, in common New England terminology, usually contains potatoes and onions, sometimes celery and bacon or salt pork. The main ingredient is typically clams, fish or corn.

There have been many variations of clam chowda over the years. The main ingredients like the quahogs or chowder clams always the constant. Smaller clams are easier to eat raw on the half shell or steamed. The larger quahogs or chowder clams are chewy and tough. It is easier to chop them up and put them in soups or cakes.

New England Clam Chowda, probably the most well known, a creamy thick soup of clams, potatoes, onions, milk or cream, and sometimes celery, bacon, or salt pork. Almost always served with saltine type crackers or oyster crackers to crush up in the soup to make it even thicker.

There is a lesser known version of chowder that probably originated in coastal New England. This version is clear broth made of clam juice. The ingredients also include quahogs, potatoes, onions, bacon and sometimes celery. This version has spread from Rhode Island (a possible location of origin), all the way down the coastal eastern seaboard, with versions popping up in Delaware, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, regions where the hard shell bi-vavle is readily available. Though a spicy version is even found as far south as Florida.

Manhattan style Clam Chowder is the bane of New England apparently. “Manhattan” clam chowder was named due to New Englanders being offended by Rhode Island’s Portuguese immigrants inspired version of their traditional chowda. Portuguese cuisine had many traditional stews based with tomatoes. Instead of adding cream to the clear broth, they added tomatoes instead. Scornful New Englanders called this modified version “New York” clam chowder because, in their view, calling someone a New Yorker was, and probably still is, a major insult. Little did they know how popular the tomato based version would become. Long Island and Jersey chowders typically contain tomato. The people of Maine were so abhorred by this tomatoey version, that their legislature actually passed a bill in 1939, making tomatoes in clam chowder illegal.

Back to the clear broth, that goes by many names: Rhode Island Clam Chowder, Block Island, Delaware, Hatteras, Core Sound and Bogue Sound chowders. I came across a version through the NC Cooperative Extension that I elaborated upon.

If your clams are fresh caught, it is always a good idea to purge them first. This will help to cut down on sandy grit. Get some fresh clean Sound or Bay water and place preferably rinsed clams in the fresh water…24 hours is good. If you can purge them more than once all the better.

Ingredients:

Clams and juice (the more the better) 1 qt or more. 30 chowders or more.

3 large onions

6 slices bacon

3 lbs. Potatoes

3 ribs celery

Pepper to taste

Shuck the clams and put the meat and juice in a bowl.

If you are dealing with very large chowders with large muscles or don’t have a clam knife, try freezing the clams. When ready to open clams, run warm water over the clam and take a paring knife and remove clam from shell. Place frozen clams and frozen juice in a bowl. When all clams are removed from shells place clams on chopping board and dice with a large knife or meat cleaver, put diced clams and juice back in a bowl and let thaw. This will allow the sand and grit to settle to the bottom of the bowl resulting in less grit in the chowder. Dice the potatoes, celery, onions, and bacon. In large stock pot or cast iron Dutch oven, place the clams, onions, bacon and celery and simmer until the onions are tender. Add in the clam juice being careful not to put in the contents that have settled in the bottom of the bowl. Add potatoes that have been peeled and diced. Add water until desired salty taste is achieved (about 3 cups). Then black pepper to desired taste.

Whatever your preference may be, get out there and dig some clams! Who wants Chowda??

I’ve discussed customer service before. It is a make or break deal in our struggling economy.

I have an ongoing, almost personal, relationship with one of my suppliers, R & V Works. They are the manufacturer of The Cajun Fryer. I speak with the girls in the office almost daily. I know other sales people that distribute for the company. I speak with the owner, Robert Myers, on occasion and have even spoken with the the guys that build the outdoor propane deep fryers that I distribute for the company. It’s like one big happy family.

Robert’s company is based on old school, good old fashioned American know how, hard work, and customer service. They go out and show their product while tailgating at NASCAR races. They go to big outdoor stores and set up out front and deep fry fish for the patrons walking through the door. They strive to better their product constantly. Robert is always designing new items for sale, like The Smokin’ Cajun Grill & The Cajun Express Smoker.

This company will bend over backward to make sure the customer is happy. I recently had a customer that had an issue with a unit that just wasn’t quite right. Hey, it happens sometimes. One of the girls from the office was actually going camping in the general area that the original unit was sent. She brought a brand new unit with her, and had the gentleman meet her at her campsite, and they exchanged the original unit for a new unit. NOW, THAT’S CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!

This is exactly the way I like to run my company and this is why I love working with these people. Life is too short to not be hands on, be nice to your customers and be grateful to them for giving you an order in the first place. If it wasn’t for the customer, you would not have a business. Word of mouth is a wonderful thing too. If your customer is satisfied, you may get an order from their friends or relatives. You may even get repeat customers. I actually have a few customers that I now converse with by email like, pen pals.

Enjoy life! Be happy! Leave your baggage home! Treat your customers with respect and honesty! Most of all…be nice. Nobody likes a Gloomy Gus. Hey, maybe your customer is just having a bad day. They may have had an attitude before they attempted calling you. Try to turn that frown upside down. It doesn’t always work, but I had an old boss, many years ago, that told me, the nastier a customer gets, the nicer you should be, without the sarcasm, please!!. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not. But, in the long run, they may actually remember that they were having a bad day, and you still treated them with respect. That means the world to some people. Do unto others…enough said!

Don’t have time to deep fry a turkey on Thanksgiving Day? Want to have deep fried turkey at a tailgate but don’t want to lug a deep fryer to the stadium? You can always get out your turkey fryer ahead of time, deep fry your bird, store it in the refrigerator, and then reheat the turkey when the time is right.

Reheating directions for deep fried turkey:

Remove the turkey from the refrigerator or cooler 3-4 hours before reheating to allow it to come to room temperature. This will decrease the amount of time it takes to reheat your bird. Place the turkey in preheated 250 degree F. oven or grill for 30 minutes for a 10-12 lb. turkey. (Time may vary depending on size of turkey)
For microwave re-heating:

Remove any foil from around the turkey. Place a damp cloth around the bird and heat for 10-15 minutes. If the turkey is already sliced, place in microwave safe dish and place loosely crumpled damp paper towels on top of the turkey. (Time may vary according to size of turkey and microwave wattage)

Of course reheating is never the same as right out of the fryer, but it’ll do in a pinch.

As the lesson on turkey fryers comes to a close, we now come to the safer fryer. These are larger outdoor propane deep fryers that you can fry many things, but if so inclined, you can deep fry a turkey. Two companies that manufacture these type of fryers are R & V Works who make the Cajun Fryer, and Bayou Classic that make the Bayou Fryer. Both are quite similar in design, a V shaped bottom with a squared cooking compartment made of steel.

What makes these fryers safer, is that unlike the open exposed flame and pot of bubbling oil of a traditional turkey fryer, these units have a self contained flame. The ignition port is usually at the side or the back of the unit. The flames run through the oil in the cooking compartment in self contained metal tubes. As the metal heats, it in turn heats the frying oil. And, yes it does get hot enough to heat the oil to deep fry anything you want, even a whole turkey. Any spillage, bubbling oil or splash back that may occur would come out of the front of the unit, not down the side, or out of the back, therefore no hot oil and flame should ever come in contact. Thus, a safer fryer.

The V shaped bottom helps to keep the oil fresher longer. The oil below the tubes tends to stay much cooler. Any food particles that may fall to the bottom are not in hot, scorching oil. The food particles won’t burn, therefore keeping the oil from getting that burned carbon flavor.

You can recoup the investment of your cooking oil in no time, by filtering your oil after about every 5 uses. All of the units come with a drain valve to aid in this purpose. A piece of radiator hose from the auto parts store and an appropriate fitting attached, will help you filter your cooled oil back into the original containers, allowing you to strain out any food particles as well. If you don’t have a proper oil filtering and straining system, take your time with a funnel and a coffee filter and you are good to go. If you are tailgating, and don’t have time to let everything cool down properly, the use of metal Jerry cans can aid in this purpose. Before you go into the football game, carefully drain the hot oil into metal Jerry cans and place them off to the side or away. This will also help the deep fryer to cool down quicker so that people walking through the parking lot to get into the stadium will not be bumping into a hot metal fryer.

The safer fryers come in many sizes, from 2 1/2 gallon all the way up to a large 17 gallon fryer that is technically two 8 1/2 gallon fryers welded together on one stand. You can not cook a whole Thanksgiving bird in a 2 1/2 gallon unit though. Any unit ranging 6 gallons and up though, would be perfect for turkey. There are even specially modified frying baskets that help fit a turkey into a 6 gallon Cajun Fryer or larger.

If you love deep fried turkey, but don’t want to deep fry a bird in the house in a counter top deep fryer, or have a roasted turkey in an oil-less “turkey fryer”, and are still leery of the conventional turkey fryer, than a safer fryer is for you. You can deep fry everything from apple fritters to zeppoles in these fryers. Great for tailgate parties, camping, a Friday night fish fry at the church, or even for starting up a mobile catering business. Just spray down the inside of the unit with some spray cooking oil when not in use put a cover on it and store it in the garage or shed.

Deep fried turkey has become an American passion. If you have been thinking about getting a turkey fryer, do your research before you decide what fryer is right for you. You don’t just have to buy a traditional turkey fryer. There are lots of different options out there. Become informed and whatever you do go with, remember to read your manual, follow the directions, be safe, and use sober, common sense.

PS. Always remember to have an extra tank of propane on hand. You don’t want to run out in the middle of deep frying your Thanksgiving dinner!!

So, now we get to the traditional turkey fryer. A stock pot, a jet cooker, and a propane tank. Simple, yet many people are frightened by them.

As long as you read the instructions, follow what they say, use sober, common sense, and have a bucket of sand and/or an all purpose fire extinguisher handy, everything should be fine. Oil and water don’t mix!! There is no need to be a hero either. If you find yourself in a situation that is out of your hands, call the local fire department.

Reading about other peoples bad experiences with traditional outdoor propane deep fryers can be good, but can also be bad. If you read them in order to find out what not to do, that is fine. But if you read them and they just make you more opposed to cooking this way, then you will want to go with a safer outdoor propane fryer, or go oil less.

As long as you follow certain guidelines, you can have a perfect, crispy, & juicy fried turkey in about a third of the the time it takes to roast the same size bird in your oven. Imagine having a fully cooked 14 lb. turkey in less than an hour as compared to taking more than 4 hours to roast the same bird.

Safety is the main thing with this style of fryer. It must be used outdoors, and not inside of your garage or on your wooden deck right next to your house. You want the unit away from buildings and combustible materials.

It should be placed on a sturdy level section of ground or concrete.

You want a good distance between your propane tank and your cooker. But you also want to make sure that the hose between the tank and the cooker are not in a walk through area.

Make sure that the kids, your buddies and the dog all have some place else to play. That goes for after you are done cooking as well. It will take quite a while for the frying oil to cool down once you are done.

If there is any wind the day you are cooking, place your LP gas on the upside of the wind so that the heat of the burner is blowing in the opposite direction.

Make sure you are properly dressed. You want long sleeves, shoes, and pants. Shorts and flip flops are not a great idea here. You also want to have on a pair of protective gloves, preferably ones that can handle high temps. Safety goggles are not a bad idea either.

You want an oil with a high smoke point. For more on smoke point and cooking oils, see our past blog on Frying Oils.

Having all of your equipment right on hand is important. You want to have your thermometer to constantly monitor your temp. A conventional turkey fryer does not have a temperature gauge that will shut off when it reaches the desired temperature. It does not a safety shut off, or breakaway cord like a counter top deep fryer. You must constantly monitor an outdoor propane deep fat fryer. DO NOT EVER LEAVE THE FRYER UNATTENDED. Have your lifting hooks and everything right where you can get at them. If possible, have a friend that can assist in raising and lowering your turkey into the hot oil.

Make sure your poultry is fully thawed!!! Ice crystals and hot oil do not mix!

I like to start at about 400 degrees. Even though your bird should be at room temp. for about an hour before you fry it, the oil temp. is still going to drop down. Starting a little higher than optimum temp. will help speed temp. recovery time. When the oil has reached optimum temp. you want to raise and lower the bird into the hot oil just like a dunking tea bag. The oil will spit and bubble at this point. So take your time getting the turkey settled in before placing the lid on the unit. If you are worried about hot oil and flames coming in contact, shut the burner off while you are lowering the turkey into the pot. Once everything has settled, immediately turn your burner back on. Remember to monitor your temps. You don’t want the temperature too low, or too high.

Now, I can never stress the fact enough that a traditional turkey fryer is the perfect piece of outdoor cooking equipment for tailgaters, campers, and even the backyard social butterfly.

This unit not only deep fries. You can steam, boil, and stew with it. You can steam corn on the cob while you are grilling steaks in your back yard. You can have a whole Low Country Boil or New England Style Clam Bake at the beach. You can make beef stew for that cold weather tailgate, or a huge pot of hot chocolate, hot cider or mulled wine. Deep fry a huge mess of Buffalo wings for the Superbowl. Have a Friday Night Fish Fry at church. You can even make corned beef and cabbage for a Half Way to St. Patrick’s Day party at your fire department or in the stadium parking lot at a Notre Dame game. Menu options are endless.This kind of cooking equipment is a tailgater’s best friend.

And that’s not all. There are still at least 100 more applications that a turkey fryer can fit into. You can use them to can beets at harvest time. You can cook down maple sap to make syrup in the spring. Tie die shirts with the kids on a summer afternoon. There is no reason to pack your fryer away just because Thanksgiving is over.

As I have said before, if you are frightened of these wonderful cooking apparatuses due to past horror stories, then this cooker may not be for you. But, if you are willing to get out there and experiment, the options of this versatile piece of cooking equipment are astounding.

Moving on to the great outdoors. There are a few different types of outdoor turkey fryers. Some are electric, some are propane. Some that are traditional deep fat turkey fryers, and some that are oil free or oil less “turkey fryers“.

I wanted to touch upon the later two as they are made by very respectable companies. They are safe, easy and cook great. The thing is, is that they really are not deep fryers. They technically roast the bird using radiant heat or infrared heat.

Some of these units actually have the option of adding wood chips for a smokey flavor.

A few of the upsides here are less mess, easier clean up, less of a fire hazard, other cooking options, etc.

Obviously, you have a virtually splatter free cooking unit, as you have no oil to spit, pop, or boil over. This makes clean up much easier as you do not have to wait for frying oil to cool down. You don’t have oil to filter and store. You still need to wait for the unit to cool down before clean up and storage, but this will take considerably less time than a unit full of hot oil. Some of the pieces of these units are dish washer safe, therefore also saving time. Though, certain parts must be hand cleaned and should never be submerged in water.

These units are safer as there is no hot oil that can come in contact with open flame, which could pose a potential fire hazard. Safety precautions should still be taken though. No pets or kids, of any age, running around the unit all willy nilly. Remember that you still have either an electric cord or a propane tank hooked to a hot container that is full of hot food. The sides of the unit will be hot. Make sure that you have appropriate protective gloves and your handling equipment on hand. Even though there is less of a potential for fire, etc, you should still keep a constant eye on any outdoor cooking equipment.

Using no oil is a healthier option compared to deep fried foods. Less calories and no oil, but still having crispy yet juicy turkey is a definite up point.

Another positive point to these units, as compared to a conventional turkey fryer, is you can use seasoning rubs. You can still use injectable seasonings, but rubs that would normally boil right off in hot frying oil, will now be a tasty and crispy part of the outside of your bird or other meats and vegetables that can be roasted in these units.

Now for the down sides. As I said, these units do not technically deep fry. You cannot make traditional french fries or doughnuts in an infrared cooker. You can smoke food but you cannot out and out deep fry. A traditional turkey fryer, you can also boil, steam and stew. This is not an option here.

These units are portable enough, especially the propane units, but if you are tailgating or camping with an electric unit, having a generator is a must. You can roast and smoke all sorts of meats and vegetables in one of these oil less fryers, which is nice for different menu options at the stadium or at a campground get together. But having a traditional fryer that has a stock pot that you can stew chili in, steam corn and lobster in, or deep fry chicken wings is a much more versatile piece of cooking equipment for people that use outdoor cooking equipment all the time.

These radiant heating units are great. They are cleaner and safer than traditional turkey fryers. The infrared heat seals in moisture for crispy, juicy, less fattening and flavorful food. If you have been looking for a turkey fryer for the holidays, but been hesitant to buy for safety issues, than this may be an option for you.

It’s that time of year again. People start trying to remember where they packed the turkey fryer away. Is it in the garage, the shed, the attic?

I know that some people use their turkey fryers year round, for all sorts of applications, like canning vegetables at the end of the summer or making chili for the tailgate. But, most people only use their stock pot and propane cooker for one thing, Thanksgiving. I just don’t understand why this versatile piece of cooking equipment would only be used for one holiday a year. The traditional turkey fryer can be used to steam, stew, and boil, beside being able to deep fry anything, like wings, fries, onion rings, etc.

If you don’t already own a turkey fryer but have been thinking about getting one, which one do you choose?

There are so many types of “fryers” to choose from on the market now. There are indoor electric counter top fryers that can hold a small turkey. There is a larger counter top model by Masterbuilt & Butterball that have made turkey frying more convenient and use less oil too. There are the traditional outdoor propane turkey fryers and larger outdoor professional style deep fryers that you can deep fry turkey in. There are outdoor electric turkey fryers, and “oil-free” turkey fryers. Which one is right for you?